Many manufactured goods, particularly containers that hold fragile products, such as photoactive products, resemble box-like configurations and often have attractive finishes on the exterior surfaces. In order to protect these products from damage, manufacturers often package these products in boxes made from corrugated paperboard. Typically containers of photoactive products, such as X-ray cassettes, are shrink wrapped for dust protection and then placed in a corrugated folder for damage protection during handling and shipment. The folder 1 (FIGS. 1 & 2) generally comprises overlapping or rolled up portions 2 along opposing sides 3,4 of the product 5. These overlapping corrugated portions are known to be bulky, cumbersome to handle, add excessive weight to the product, and generate excessive waste for the environmental waste stream.
Conventional packaging for containers of fragile products requires bulky materials for adequate packaging. Such packaging schemes are typically not fully recyclable and, therefore, they contribute to the environmental waste stream. Another problem with current packaging is that it is expensive to manufacture because of the excessive packaging material requirements. To protect containers of fragile products, such as photoactive products, from sustaining damage which might otherwise occur when the product container experiences impacts of sufficient magnitude to deform it or perhaps even cause a slight penetration, manufacturers have typically used corrugated paperboard as described previously.
While edge support members have not been used to protect containers of photoactive products, like X-ray cassettes, corner protectors of some sort are known in other types of products for meeting various packaging needs.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,175,041 to Webb et al. is directed to a corner protector formed from paper honeycomb material which fits between the corner of a container and the corner of a relatively rigid object in the container. A shortcoming of the Webb device is that it requires a rigid container in addition to the product container without which the honeycombed corner protector could not be mounted.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,939,978 to Thomaswick discloses a shipping container having polyethylene corner pads surrounded by corrugated board. Thomaswick requires corrugated sheet material that adds weight and additional waste.
Therefore, there persists a need for an easily manufacturable, fully recyclable, easily stored, economical package for product containers of photoactive materials that provides high impact resistance protection during shipping and handling.